Afriheritage Research Working Papers

AfriHeritage Research Working Paper 2019 010 NOMADIC PASTORALISM AND HUMAN SECURITY : TOWARDS A COLLECTIVE ACTION AGAINST HERDERS-FARMERS CRISIS IN NIGERIA AfriHeritage Research Working Papers Chukwuemeka Enyiazu Chikodiri Nwangwu African Heritage Institution : promoting evidence-based decision Nomadic Pastorialism and Human Security : Towards a Collective Action against Herders-Farmers Crisis in Nigeria | AfriHeritage Working Paper 2019 010 Nomadic Pastoralism and Human Security: Towards a Collective Action against Herders-Farmers Crisis in Nigeria By Chikodiri Nwangwu & Chukwuemeka Enyiazu Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. [email protected] The AfriHeritage Policy Research Working Paper Series : This research work is carried out with the support of IDRC/TTI Canada 1 Nomadic Pastorialism and Human Security : Towards a Collective Action against Herders-Farmers Crisis in Nigeria | AfriHeritage Working Paper 2019 010 Abstract Land use is a fundamental agrarian question which remains central to the economic survival of humanity, especially in Africa. The limited access to land in most African social formations has engendered a fierce competition between non-agricultural user groups and their agricultural counterparts, on the one hand, and among various agricultural user groups, on the other. The two major groups of agricultural land users are nomadic pastoralists and sedentary peasant farmers. As a predominantly agrarian nation, more than half of Nigeria’s workforce is engaged in farming. Nonetheless, the internecine conflict between these two groups of agro-land users, which continues to acquire ethnic, religious and political tinge, has grave implications for human security in the country. Explanation of the conflict between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers has centred on climate change, population growth, and insecurity. However, the transnational character of this conflict has not received adequate scholarly attention. Despite the existence of regional frameworks like the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol, there is a dearth of knowledge on how these regional efforts could be leveraged by the Nigerian government in order to contain the harmful impacts of transhumant pastoralism in the country. Using the regional security complex theory, this paper argues that networking of relevant security agencies, regional bodies and other stakeholders, including civil society organisations, is the panacea for tackling the tension-soaked relationship between these land users. Keywords: Nomadic pastoralism, Peasant farming, Human security, Regional security complex theory, ECOWAS Protocol, Nigeria 2 Nomadic Pastorialism and Human Security : Towards a Collective Action against Herders-Farmers Crisis in Nigeria | AfriHeritage Working Paper 2019 010 Introduction This paper investigates the link between nomadic pastoralism and human security in Nigeria. It argues that the pastoral crisis has increasingly become a regional contagion in West Africa and requires collective, interlocking, and transnational approach. Human security in Nigeria has come under severe threat by a combination of both natural and anthropogenic forces. While these factors, which are not mutually exclusive, vary based on contexts, others like extreme poverty, social exclusion, human rights violations, failure of governance, proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW), food insecurity, environmental degradation, illiteracy, endemic diseases, climate change, terrorism as well as transhumant pastoralism1, are cross-cutting. Although some of these drivers of insecurity are very endemic in West Africa, threats of transhumant pastoralism appear to have burgeoned and gained currency mainly because of weak politico-security environment. This herding tradition is commonly associated with the nomads of Central, East, North, and West Africa, particularly in countries like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Sudan. With about 20 million Fulani living across West Africa (Levinson, 1996; Okoli, 2017), nomadic pastoralism in the region is almost exclusively associated with the Fulani ethnic nationality. This presupposes that they constitute the largest pastoral community in West Africa. Transhumant pastoralism is as old as recorded history. Although significant cultural and technological variations exist across the globe, the underlying practices of taking advantage of remote seasonal pastures are largely similar. The primacy of livestock rearing (both nomadic and sedentary pastoralism) to economic sustainability and food security in West Africa cannot be overemphasised. It provides about 44% of the region’s agricultural production and also boasts of 60 million heads of cattle, 160 small ruminants, and 400 million poultry (SWAC-OECD/ECOWAS, 2008). In sub- Saharan Africa, for instance, West Africa contains 25% of the cattle, 33% of the sheep, and 40% of the goats. West African transhumant pastoralists and sedentary peasant farmers have long coexisted in mutually supportive relationships that have also witnessed contentious encounters. They have had established practices of mutual trade and production relations that allow herders’ cattle to fertilise the farmers’ land in exchange for usufructuary over land and related resources. However, both population growth and increasing commodity production have led to the expansion of agriculture by peasant farmers and other investors on formerly shared grazing lands. Contrary to the existential 1 It is noteworthy that transhumant and nomadic pastoralism are not exactly the same but they are used interchangeably in this discourse. 3 Nomadic Pastorialism and Human Security : Towards a Collective Action against Herders-Farmers Crisis in Nigeria | AfriHeritage Working Paper 2019 010 2 realities in the relationship between these land users in other jurisdictions outside Africa, transhumant pastoralism in West Africa has become extremely conflictive and tension-soaked. Academic literature and newspapers are awash with reports of violent and frequently fatal clashes between herders and farmers (Agyemang, 2017; Bello, 2013; International Crisis Group, 2017; Moritz, 2006, 2010). Although widely regarded as resource-use conflicts in the intellectual tradition of neo-Malthusianism (Homer-Dixon, 1994; Hussein, Sumberg & Seddon, 1999; Moritz, 2010; Percival & Homer-Dixon, 1998), clashes between nomadic herders and peasant farmers (or what many refer to as coordinated attacks on farming communities by transhumant pastoralists) in Nigeria have not only become very frequent, sophisticated, and well-coordinated since 2015; it has also continued to acquire ethno-regional, religious, and political tinge. In Kaduna, Taraba, Plateau, and Nasarawa States, attacks by nomadic Fulani pastoralists have been focused rather selectively on non-Muslim communities. In other places like Zamfara and Kebbi States, the attacks have targeted non-Fulani villages (Okoli, 2017). Thus, most of the attacks would seem as if people are targeted and victimised on religious or ethnic grounds. Scholarly discourses of the causes of nomadic pastoralists-peasant farmers’ conflicts can be broadly segmented into three. First, recurring violent conflicts between these two groups of land users have been attributed to climate change and environmental security (Cabot, 2017; Odoh & Chilaka, 2012; Onuoha, 2008, 2010; Onuoha & Ezirim, 2010). The security implications of climate change in Africa gained currency since 2007 following debates by the African Union (AU), the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and the Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. Scholars in the field of environmental security see causal links between environmental scarcity and violence (Bachler, 1999; Homer-Dixon, 1999). However, some political ecologists have rejected this simplistic argument that environmental scarcity precipitates violent conflicts, because of inadequate reference to complex empirical realities (Peluso & Watts, 2001). Rather than being the source of conflict, they conceptualised the environment as “a theater in which conflicts or claims over property, assets, labor, and the politics of recognition play themselves out” (Peluso & Watts, 2001: 25). Second and closely allied with the above is the Malthusian perspective that urbanisation and the explosive growth in population relative to available resources in Africa can explain the clashes between sedentary farmers and nomadic pastoralists (Cilliers, 2009; Fabiyi & Otunuga, 2016; 2 In other jurisdictions outside West Africa, there is no widespread conflict between these two groups of land users. For more, see : Gentle, P. & Thwaites, R. (2016). “Transhumant Pastoralism in the Context of Socioeconomic and Climate Change in the Mountains of Nepal”, Mountain Research and Development, 36 (2), 173-182. 4 Nomadic Pastorialism and Human Security : Towards a Collective Action against Herders-Farmers Crisis in Nigeria | AfriHeritage Working Paper 2019 010 Fratkin, 1997; International Crisis Group, 2017; Neupert, 1999; Onuoha, 2010; Oyama, 2014). There has been an unprecedented expansion of public infrastructure and the acquisition of land by large- scale farmers and other private commercial interests. Accordingly, both population growth and increasing commodity production have led to the extension of farmlands to grazing reserves, thereby increasing the tension and conflicts between these land users in many parts of the

Load more